Gov. Dave Heineman pushed for more tax cuts and tax breaks during his annual State of the State address to lawmakers.
JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, January 14, 2008 6:00 pm
In four words: taxes are too high.
It’s become a gubernatorial mantra, oft repeated in a state that ranks high among its peers in the amount of money residents pay to live here.
Taxes in Nebraska are too high, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman said to the Legislature in his State of the State address Tuesday morning. And if it was up to him, more relief would be on the way, in the form of $75 million in property tax relief, increasing the amount for each property owner from the current $83 to $151 per $100,000 of assessed value.
Last year, the Legislature lowered taxes, giving property tax relief, repealing the death tax, eliminating the marriage penalty, expanding the earned income tax credit and repealing the sales tax on construction labor.
But taxes are still too high for small business owners, farmers, teachers and nurses, Heineman said.
While handing out tax relief, he would also maintain a strong cash reserve.
“A fiscally responsible budget requires a prudent cash reserve for when we have a downturn in the economy,” he said.
Sen. Lavon Heidemann, chairman of the Legislature’s Appropriation Committee, said he appreciates the governor’s talk about keeping a healthy cash reserve. He would like to see money there now stay there — over $500 million.
But the committee will take a long hard look at transferring $75 million out of the bolstered cash reserve to property tax relief, he said.
This is the first step in a three-month budget process. The committee takes the governor’s recommendations on adjustments for its two-year, $7 billion budget, but makes its own decisions on what to take to the full Legislature for its approval. The budget for 2008-09 is $3.5 billion.
In his State of the State address, Heineman touched on job incentives, education, immigration and the health of Nebraskans.
He said he continues to work on incentives for jobs, expansion of industry and trade with countries like Taiwan, Cuba, China and Mexico. He wants the Legislature to make creation of higher paying jobs a priority with the Nebraska Super Advantage program to bring in new and higher paying jobs for the state’s young people.
He also wants to tackle the cost of education and making the school aid formula more predictable and sustainable. Recently the state found out an additional $53 million would be needed to pay for K-12 schools, compared to the estimate at the end of the 2007 session.
Since he’s been governor, he said, he has recommended funding the school aid formula in full. But the formula needs to become more understandable, stable and affordable.
The Legislature’s Education Committee chair, Lincoln Sen. Ron Raikes, has played a huge role in crafting the current formula. A bill this session will deal with aspects of the formula, particularly in how it deals with calculating the needs of schools, he said.
But there’s no sense in scrapping the whole formula, he said.
On immigration, Heineman said illegal immigration should not be rewarded. The federal government’s failure to effectively address illegal immigration means the states, including Nebraska, must address specific challenges in their own ways.
Heineman also wants the state to tackle the problems of high health costs — beginning with the state’s youngest citizens. He’d like to reverse childhood obesity to reduce risks of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
“This issue doesn’t require a new law,” he said. “It’s about eating properly and exercising regularly.”
Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.